Sugar and tea, a story of affinity

The more or less pronounced bitterness in a cup of tea is not solely a question of how much leaves you put into your pot. It appears when the caffeine molecules disperse and diffuse into the liquid.

We all know that it gives us a boost, eliminates fatigue and increases our concentration, but we also know that it leaves a slightly bitter taste in the mouth. It is to limit this feeling that some add sugar.

For a long time we thought that sugar masked the bitterness of the tea through the mouth receptors.

However British chemist and scientis at York University have recently proved how adding sugar in its cup force the caffeine molecules to aggolmerate togerther. Japanese Professor Seishi Shimuzu has demonstraded, through statistical thermodymatcs that the caffeine molécules aggregate to avoid sugar.

It is the chemical affinity between the sugar molecules and water which corral the caffeine and make it less accessible to our taste buds in the mouth.